Entry-level software engineers may just be getting their start, but a well-crafted resume that highlights your skills lets potential employers know you have the technical abilities and motivation to grow in your first role.
Employers need dependable programmers to create, test, and modify code for computer programs and applications. Emphasize your technical expertise and professional experience on an effective programmer resume.
Quality assurance specialists play an essential part in rolling out an efficient and bug-free product for users. Show hiring managers you’re a valuable addition to their team with a resume that highlights attention to detail and problem solving skills.
A web developer designs and develops websites, including the layout, functionality, and overall user experience. Show hiring managers you have great problem-solving skills and an eye for design in your web developer resume.
Front-end developers focus on user interactions and visual elements of a website. Impress potential employers with a front-end developer resume that centers UI/UX design, web development tools, and other essential skills.
.NET developers design and improve software and applications using Microsoft's .NET framework. Show off your analytical skills, attention to detail, and coding language(s) you're proficient in to create an impressive .NET developer resume.
Java developers use the Java programming language to create and maintain applications and software. This role is often highly collaborative, so be sure to highlight teamwork skills and communication in addition to the required technical skills on your Java developer resume.
UI developers use their knowledge of programming and design to create seamless interactions for users. Show hiring managers you have the technical proficiency, eye for aesthetics, and people skills to develop high quality applications and software.
When looking for a computer science internship, include relevant coding and website design experience from your studies, plus a range of hard and soft skills to show employers you're prepared for a challenge.
To help you with your software engineer resume, here’s a properly formatted resume outline you can copy and paste to get started:
Software Engineer Resume Example
FIRST AND LAST NAME
Phone: 408 104 7942
Email: professional-email@gmail.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/your-profile
Resume Summary
Software Engineer with 7+ years of experience facilitating cutting-edge engineering solutions with a wide range of e-commerce application and technology skills. Proven ability to leverage full-stack knowledge and experience to build interactive and user-centered website designs to scale. Extensive expertise in large system architecture development and administration, as well as network design and configuration.
Relevant Skills
Professional Experience
Education
Whether you’re an entry-level software engineer or a senior developer, you need to know how to structure your resume to best reflect your experience and qualifications.
With various software engineering skills, languages, and methodologies, you may be confused about what to include when space on your resume is limited.
Keep reading to learn how to create a strong software engineer resume that successfully targets the position you’re applying for.
Hiring managers are often swamped with hundreds of resumes for each job opening. Even if you’re highly qualified, it’s important to submit a concise single-page resume highlighting only your most important qualifications.
Employers don’t need to know every position you’ve ever held – they just want to see your most important software development experience.
To best showcase your qualifications on one page, prioritize experiences that demonstrate skills mentioned in the job description. Additionally, stick to five bullet points or fewer for each entry in your resume’s work history section.
If you’re unsure what skills to include on your resume, we compiled internal data to determine the top five most popular software engineering skills of 2023. Any of these skills make a great addition to your resume, as long as they’re relevant to the position:
Make sure to be transparent about your familiarity with a given language and skill, especially if it’s mentioned in the job description. A good way to demonstrate your proficiency is to provide concrete examples of how you applied your skills and what the results were.
Here are a few tips to help you effectively work relevant skills into your software engineer resume:
Do:
Don't:
Remember to incorporate skills you’d like to highlight throughout the different sections of your resume, not only in a dedicated resume skills section.
When listing accomplishments throughout your resume, one of the best ways to make your resume stand out is to add hard numbers to your achievements. Adding numbers to a key result helps demonstrate your value to potential employers.
Here’s an example of how to do this effectively:
Designed an internal website for agents and management, saving an average of $8,000 in labor costs per week.
In this example, the candidate emphasizes the exact financial benefit (dollars saved) of their efforts.
Led a development project for a web scraping program in Python to help the firm download public data, including over 6,000 company descriptions and stock quotes, to increase research efficiency by over 40%.
In the above example, the candidate shows not only their skills in leadership — an important soft skill — but also how they used their Python skills to improve the company’s research efficiency in hard numbers.
Tailoring your resume to each position you apply for increases your chances of getting an interview because you demonstrate that you possess the exact qualifications the employer is looking for. Additionally, showing that you’ve done thorough research on the company makes you seem more motivated.
First, research the company and take note of their products, technologies, and goals. When writing your resume, try to highlight skills and experiences that demonstrate how you can help the business meet their needs.
Then, read through the job description paying special attention to requirements and desired qualifications. Work these keywords naturally into your resume.
In your work experience section, follow this formula to keep your bullet points clear and concise:
Action verb + Task (or project) + Result
Finally, optimize your resume introduction and professional experience sections by addressing the job’s needs with your related background. Then, expand on those experiences and complete your job application with a matching software engineer cover letter.
LaTeX is a popular word-formatting tool for software engineers. We’ve compiled the best LaTeX resume templates and matching LaTeX cover letter templates if you prefer to use this software.
Strengthen your resume by adding sections when appropriate to demonstrate additional qualifications like:
In particular, adding a section for personal projects on your resume is a good way to show that you’re a qualified engineer, even if you don’t have much traditional work experience.
Adding additional sections to your resume will help you stand out from the competition and increase your chances of getting hired for the job you want.
Similar to extra sections on your resume, hiring managers can learn more about you if you write a cover letter that complements your resume. By expanding on your resume with concrete examples, you’ll be on your way to snagging that interview.
Emily Crowley loves helping job seekers overcome obstacles to advance their careers. She graduated from George Mason University with a degree in Foreign Language and...
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